for'll this, I hope to get away in a week; for I dread letting the autumn creep on at a distance from my own chimney corner."'—pp. 273–277.

We are aware that we have imperfectly described the contents of these volumes, but we think we have shown by our extracts, and our general description of the work, that we are justified in declaring, that a more amusing and profitable production has not appeared in the same department for many years.

ART. III.-Visit to Germany and the Low Countries, in the year 1829, 1830, and 1831. By SIR ARTHUR BROOKE FAULKNER. In 2 Vols. 8vo. London: Bentley. 1833.

THE leisure of the busiest amongst us may be much more unprofitably employed, than in dedicating it to the perusal of such a work as that now before us; for though the subject of its contents be a theme now almost hacknied to exhaustion, and though the author does not pretend to the credit of rendering any important service to the state by his production, still we are bound to conclude, that there is some merit in augmenting, however slightly, the sum of our knowledge, respecting that great moral phenomenon--the human character. There is no valid argument, therefore, against this book, contained in the assertion that it is but the record of a tour over a portion of the continent, where journeys have been performed and described ten thousand times before. That is not enough; a great deal more remains to be done; every eye has a faculty of observation peculiar to itself, and as multiplied observation alone can determine the truth, especially in those cases which involve an inquiry into the springs of human actions, so is it necessary to promote the accumulation of facts. Impressed with these considerations, we are always disposed to extend an adequate degree of forbearance, to those travellers whose labours are calculated to illustrate the great problem of which mention has been just made, whatever be the faults and irregularities which may be found in their plan, and the details of its execution. We can find, for example, in the volumes now under examination, the marks of a rambling, inconsiderate mind, placing paramount confidence in its own decisions, and sometimes precipitate in its judgment, upon the practices which it has not taken the pains to investigate; but however these imperfections may ultimately operate, they cannot neutralize the value of the author's descriptions of characters, manners, and the diversified institutions which he met with abroad. He is a man of the world, and has mixed extensively in society; he is conversant with books, and possesses, accordingly, the advantages to be derived from them; he is, more

over, a shrewd observer, and we sincerely believe is directed in the distribution of his praise or his censure by motives of unquestionable purity.

Sir Arthur, it appears, embarked for Rotterdam, in September, 1829, and duly arrived there, after a voyage which presented nothing worthy of record, save a German personage, one of the passengers, who, by his hostility to Englishmen, very naturally raised the indignation of the author. Proceeding to Cologne, and subsequently to Mayence, Sir Arthur declines the duty of describing the route he has taken, under an apprehension that a task, in which some of our best poets have failed, could not be undertaken by him with any chance of success. He tells us, however, that in Mayence, the English are unpopular, and the leading cause of this misfortune, is stated to be the very awkward part they take in their ordinary contracts in the shops. British visitors to the continent, generally take it for granted that they are expressly marked out as the victims of the local shopkeepers' extortion; they affect, therefore, on all occasions, to become indignant at the announcement of the prices, and generally conclude by a tender of about a third of the sum required. The inculpation which is implied by this offer, neither gods nor Germans can bear, and we are therefore set down, for the most part, as barbarians, destitute of that cultivation which would entitle us to hold rank amongst the civilized nations of Europe. Nevertheless, the experience of the author is, that to some extent at least, the suspicion of German honesty, on the part of English visitors, is justified; for the tradesmen, he declares, are ready to impose on their customers whenever they can, and that too, not so much on account of their partiality for a large profit, as for their inherent love of taking advantage of others. A lady, twenty years married to a German, repeated to the author, that the principle of the dealing of her husband's compatriots, was not kept a secret, it being comprised in this simple maxim-get as much as you can wheedle out of those who can afford it. Frankfort and Cassel are the cities to which the author next directs his inquiries. With the latter he is far from being well pleased, and, indeed, extends his displeasure to the whole electorate of Hessia, of which Cassel is the principal place. He renders justice, however, to Hessia, by observing, that it is creditably distinguished for the perfect practical toleration of all religious persuasions which exists amongst its population, and the charity of people of opposite persuasions towards each other. Catholic and Protestant live in the most perfect harmony, caring as little, remarks our author, for the preferences entertained by either for his religion, as for his particular view respecting the north-west passage. The clergy of Hessia, as may be at once concluded from the moral condition of their flock, are exemplary in their conduct, and yet the average stipend paid to each per annum, amounts to no more than forty dollars, with a

house and garden. Each dollar,' adds Sir Arthur, is worth only three shillings British, and let the Archbishop of Canterbury calculate the amount.' At Halsdorf, in the same electorate, the traveller made a brief stay, having been particularly attracted by the mode of thrashing, which was then in full operation in the village. The labourers of Halsdorf thrash with a perfect regard to time, harmoniously joining each other in the same measure, and in the transitions from one sort of measure to another. He saw, sometimes, eight flails in concert; at other times four only; but under all variations of the amount of the workmen, they preserved the most severe regularity of succession in the strokes, as if they were directed to each movement by a musical score. When the piano sounds of the flails is to be particularly delicate, the tips of these instruments only are used! next comes the crescendo, the flails are gradually wielded with more power-the barn soon echoes to the loud notes.

Sir Arthur particularly noted that the flail, during the whole operation, is never raised higher than the head, and the ease and success with which the business is done in this manner, suggests to him the propriety of questioning the reasonableness of our English thrashers expending so large a share of their strength to so little purpose in the barn, by always carrying the flail above their heads.

The state of the population in this part of Germany is at a very low ebb indeed, the women being very little removed in civilization from the condition in which they are found to be placed amongst the barbarous Indians: the houses are built of mud, and the common food of the population is quite as low in the scale of nutriment as that of the Irish people.

At Marburg our traveller stopped at a hotel which was situated very near the house where Luther sojourned in the very height of his persecution. This residence is described by Sir Arthur as a corner house, about four stories high, with six windows in the front, and a china shop on the ground floor. Next to this again is the house where Zuinglius lived, and the ancient people of the town still point to the two windows out of which these celebrated men used to hold converse together. Here too is a university, in which degrees are conferred, and which is attended by a considerable number of students, who have excellent instruction upon amazingly cheap terms.

The relation which the professors of various religious doctrines maintained in this town, at the time of the Reformation, is best explained by the fact, that one part of the principal church was appropriated to the Protestants, the other to the Catholics; and a carpet for the floor of the edifice, which had been wrought at some former period by a margravine, was divided in two, that it might serve for the members of each of the two religions, who were necessarily obliged to solemnize their worship apart. The state of

education, in this part of Germany, is on a footing so judicious, that some notice of it appears to us to be desirable, with the view of illustrating some of the erroneous principles of diffusing education which have been acted on in this country. In Marburg there is an actual obligation imposed on parents to send their children to school. All heads of families are included in a tax for the support of institutions connected with education, and this duty is enforced, whether they take advantage of such institutions or not. The nomination of a schoolmaster is always preceded by a most rigorous, bona fide inquisition into the qualifications of the candidate; and as every body is interested in having a proper person to discharge the duties of teacher, it can scarcely ever happen that an incompetent person should be appointed. Independently of these fixed establishments for the purposes of education, there are also itinerant lecturers, who perform circuits round the country, carrying education, as it were, to the very door of those who will not go forth to seek it. These peripatetic instructors, however, are not recognized by the state, and depend altogether on the inclination of their scholars for a subsistence. The greatest attention is bestowed on the selection of books for the popular schools; the scholars are left, for the most part, to their own tastes, but abridgements in an attractive form and style, of some of the most useful books, are put into the children's hands, and these small productions are sold on terms which are just short of being absolutely gratuitous: a short publication, for example, containing a quantity of printed matter, which is equal to one hundred and fifty pages of our octavo volumes, may be had for 43d. But the most important of all the principles which are incorporated with the system of education, in this part of Germany, is that which establishes, as a fundamental measure, the well grounding of the children of both sexes in the principles of religion. That parent has a terrible responsibility to answer for who neglects to give his child the opportunity of cultivating religion: the immense advantage of an early introduction to religion is that it secures the prepossession of the mind towards it during life. When a knowledge of divine truths only arrives at a time when the student is advanced to maturity, the probability is, that his impressions of its influence will be fleeting.

Though this system of extended education produces no unusually large proportion of intellectual lights amongst the Germans, yet its moral effects are strikingly manifest in the shrewdness and very orderly conduct of the people at large. They have no time to contract a taste for idleness or dissipation; they have been initiated into the enjoyment of mental pleasures; and many who, if they were to exchange climates with Englishmen, would abandon their leisure to gin and tobacco, are now much more contented to consume the Waverley Novels. These famous productions are in prodigious request in the interior of Germany; and, what cannot

but be gratifying to hear, this extraordinary demand is never considered by the booksellers as a reason for raising the price of their commodities. Sir Arthur states, that a copy of the Iliad and Odyssey, on good paper and in excellent type, perfectly new, may be had at Marburg, for 1s. 10d.! Another remarkable circumstance is the total exclusion of immoral and obscene books from circulation.

Proceeding from Marburg to Frankfort, and subsequently to Bonn, the site of a famous university, the author takes occasion to enter into some very interesting details on the more improved system of general education which prevails in this part of Germany. In every town and large village there is a school, chiefly supported by voluntary contributions, to which the children of all classes, ranks, and religion are admitted. This rustic establishment is called Freischule, and the system on which it is conducted is altogether admirable in its plan and in its effects, and furnishes an invincible proof of the facility and even usefulness of educating children of different religions in the same institution. The Lancasterian system is rejected in almost all the schools, whilst that of Pestalozzi is generally adopted. The regulations respecting prizes, vacations, and the health of the scholars, the absence of corporal punishments, and the system of seeking to stimulate industry by calling the moral feelings into play, are amongst the more striking features of the great plan of German education, which proves with what a profound attention to the genius of human nature the foundations of that plan have been laid. The whole subject is amply and accurately treated by the author of these volumes, and forms a theme for meditation, which should meet with the immediate attention of all who are interested in the moral improvement of the country.

The principal establishments of Bonn, the gymnasium and the university, are likewise minutely and satisfactorily described by the author. The practice of duelling, though prevalent at the university, is yet, when it comes to be explained, divested of all those terrors which the word in this country implies. The slightest quarrel is generally settled by an appeal to swords; but what with the encasement of strong wadding which completely invests every vulnerable point of the body of each combatant, and what with the law of honour which defines the least scratch as a legal termination of the contest, the practice of duelling in the German universities is in practice, perhaps, as innocent a method of expiating violations of honour as could well be devised.

The traveller met with many of the surviving acquaintances of Beethoven, who had been a native of Bonn. The impression in England respecting this great composer was, and we believe still is, that the Germans let him die of starvation, in imitation of the tenderness with which we treat most of our countrymen who sacrifice their private fortune to the public good. Sir Arthur B.